05 February 2011

pascal rossignol

wednesday
rory started our wednesday morning lecture by making two tea cakes, both with orange flavour. then, colm mcann, the ballymaloe sommelier, took over and talked to us about wine until our tea and coffee break at 10.45am. we regrouped back in the demo room at 11am and were introduced to pascal rossignol, a wine conniosseur (born in gevrey-chambertin, burgundy, france) who lives in kilkenny and runs and owns 'le caveau', a specialty wine shop.


pascal had us taste six different wines and talked extensively about each one.

from burgandy, we sampled:

white: olivier leflaive, bourgogne 2009
chardonnay

red: laurent parize, givry 'champs nalot' 2007
pinot noir

red: didier desvignes, fleurie 2009
gamay (beaujolais)

from the south-west of france:

white: alain brumont gros manseng-sauvignon 2009
gros manseng and sauvignon blanc

red: chateau du cedre 'heritage' 2009, cahors
malbec and merlot

sweet: jurancon 'clos uroulat' 2008, charles hours
petit manseng

the pinot noir and the manseng-sauvignon were my favorites. i had high hopes for the malbec, but it wasn't nearly as smooth and enjoyable as the malbecs from argentina. (in my opinion, of course!)

i could have listened to pascal talk about wine all day, but shortly after 1pm, he concluded and we broke for lunch.

as i stood in line to collect my plate, i chatted with two ladies who had come over to ballymaloe from co. kerry to attend the afternoon lecture on 'afternoon tea'. they asked me loads of questions about the course. it was fun to share some stories with them and explain how the course ran. they were looking forward to the ham rory had prepared for lunch as well as all the delicious sides.

we sped through lunch and were back for afternoon lecture at 2pm. sean moran was our guest and he spent an hour talking to us about tea. did you know that behind water, tea is the most consumed beverage in the world? true story. sean passed around several samples of loose leaf tea and explained to us how much better loose leaf tea is for us (taste alone!) compared to the tea bag tea sold at super markets. i was not aware that green tea should be made with water heated to just under a boil. boiling water scalds the green tea leaves, destroying the vitamins and nutritional value of the tea. good to know!

in conclusion, and in sean's opinion, everyone should own a teapot (and know how many cups it holds) and drink loose leaf tea from a thin tea cup (it keeps the tea hotter longer).

the rest of the lecture was made up of cakes, cupcakes, buns and other sweet accompaniments for afternoon tea. delicious!

wednesday evening was our first pilates class with grainne sugrue who teaches at a pilates studio in cork city. as with most first classes, it was more of an informational session than an actual workout. grainne talked about the history of pilates as well as all the benefits and then we went over 'A' - alignment, 'B' - breathing and 'C' - core before she dismissed us. i anticipate that it will be a great way to release from the day and be something we can practice throughout the week in addition to the actual weekly class.

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